The policy of anonymous staff accounts is being modified. The Forum is changing to be run as most other forums are run - with member staff accounts (not anonymous). All new Administrators/Moderators in the future will simply have their member account promoted. All current moderators have been given the option of staying anonymous if they choose to, or they can have their member account promoted and close down their anonymous account now.

The current active Admin accounts - Admin1 and AdminA are being closed and the holders of these accounts will be operating under their member names. The Admins are -HALMadbunny

Many of you already knew this.

What we have been doing here is not the norm for a forum. The norm is that members who are dedicated to the forum and who know how to debate and post within the rules have their member accounts promoted to moderators - that's where moderators come from. I'm sure those of you who frequent other forums know this. That's the way thousands of forums operate and that's how we are changing this forum to operate. It will also make it easier and faster for your moderators to respond to your needs. You will also see them posting and debating in threads because they are members, just like everyone else. Also, as in thousands of other forums, the member moderators exhibit, in their posts, the higher skill, wit, and knowledge that made them a moderator in the first place, and that's a good way for other members to learn by example.

You may ask how this policy will affect your daily posting habits on the forum. The answer is that it won't. So please continue to enjoy the forum and be assured that we stand ready to help whether anonymous or not. And if I chime into threads here and there don't be surprised - after all I'm a member too.

I'll try to answer a few questions about the policy change, but it's really very straightforward.

While I would prefer to remain anonymous, I don't think it's fair for me to do so inasmuch as future mods and admins will not have that option. Also, if the current admins are "coming out", I suppose I should probably do so as well. (It will also make it easier to be a mod, since I will no longer have to have two different browsers open, one for myself and one for my mod account.) All that being the case, please close my mod account and promote pianodwarf. Thanks.

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[On how kangaroos could have gotten back to Australia after the flood]: Don't kangaroos skip along the surface of the water? --Kenn

I hope this change will work out. I've been a moderator on other boards that had the "one account" system, and I remember being accused of abusing my moderator status merely for expressing views that were unpopular. (I was going to give an example here but decided not to because it's too controversial and might derail the discussion.) Fortunately, the admins never saw it that way and generally told the others that they were in the wrong.

On the other hand, I guess I can see where some participants here, particularly theists, might feel like they're not getting a fair shake because they don't know who's telling them to read the board rules and so on. I suppose considerations like that are more important.

In any event, I will say this right now: to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest, I will speak/act as a moderator only in threads in which I am not participating.

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[On how kangaroos could have gotten back to Australia after the flood]: Don't kangaroos skip along the surface of the water? --Kenn

Not that it matters much in my case since I was a mod for only about three or four weeks before this change was implemented, but I was Moderator Twenty-Two. That's because I'm twice as smart as Moderator Eleven.

« Last Edit: December 31, 2010, 03:32:52 PM by pianodwarf »

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[On how kangaroos could have gotten back to Australia after the flood]: Don't kangaroos skip along the surface of the water? --Kenn